Lessing family papers

Edward Lessing (Ed, born Eliazar Lessing) was born on 8 May 1926 in Hague, Netherlands to Nardus (later Nathan, 1901-1988) Lessing and Engeline Elizabeth van Leer Lessing (nicknamed Lien, 1901-1985). He had two brother, Arthur (nicknamed Abba, b. 1934) and Alfred (Fred, b. 1936). Nardus and Engeline married in 1925 and they immigrated with their son Ed to the United States from Delft, Netherlands in 1929. They settled in Massachusetts where Engeline’s sister Suze lived. Nardus was a cellist, but was unsuccessful in finding employment. The family returned to the Netherlands in 1932 and settled in Delft. The Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, and in October 1942 the Lessings were warned not to board any trains for work placement. They went into hiding on 23 October, hours before they would have been deported. The family decided to split up. Using a false ID, Engeline traveled around the Netherlands by train in order to find hiding places for each of the boys. Fred and Arthur first lived with their grandfather Isaac Lessing and his second wife Agatha Trijntje Cornelia Jautze in Amsterdam. They then hid with multiple families, posing as Christian boys. Ed bleached his hair and posed as a Christian. He worked on several farms near Delft before his mother arranged through a policeman for him to be placed in the woods with several men in the Dutch Resistance. They lived in a hut called “Het Duikje” (little hiding place). Ed remained there from spring 1943 through 29 December 1943. He escaped a trap set by the Germans to catch and arrest the resistance fighters, and again worked on farms under a false identity until liberation. Engeline and Nardus hid together. In May 1944, she was arrested while she was coming back from visiting Fred. She was sent to Westerbork and then deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In January 1945, Engeline was released from Bergen-Belsen through a prisoner exchange by convincing the Germans she was a U.S. citizen (she knew some English). After liberation she was sent to the UNRAA refugee camp Jeanne d’Arc in Philippeville, Algeria (Skikda). She returned to Delft to be reunited with her family in August 1945. The Lessings lost many relatives during the Holocaust. After liberation, Ed returned to the trade school that he had attended until 1941. In 1947, Nardus and Ed immigrated to the United States and settled Springfield, Massachusetts. Engeline’s sister lived nearby in Holyoke. Nardus became a piano and cello teacher. Engeline, Fred, and Arthur arrived in the U.S. in 1948. Ed took a course in scientific/medical instrument-making and got a job with General Electric. He later worked professionally as a graphic designer. He married Carla Heymans (b. 1929 in Rotterdam), also a hidden child from the Netherlands, in 1949, and their daughter Noa was born in 1951. Ed and Carla immigrated to Israel in 1950 and lived on a kibbutz, but returned to the U.S. in 1957. Arthur and Fred both obtained doctorates and taught philosophy.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Edward Lessing, Arthur Lessing and Alfred Lessing

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017 by Edward Lessing. An accretion was donated in 2018. The accessions formerly cataloged as 2017.642.1 and 2018.435.1 have been incorporated into this collection.